Chris Jella'
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- January 28, 2000
- Messages
- 133
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Rolla, Missouri
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '93 Eddie 4Dr 4X4
Well for the last month my X has been driving me nuts. It seemed to have lost some power, mileage was down, and in the last week, it was surging badly and actually hard to start sometimes. And of course, no check engine light and no codes. Also it seemed unwilling to rev much past 4000 RPM's and when it did, it would sometimes backfire, although the sound seemed to come from the engine compartment. Within the last 6 months I have replaced the O2's, TPS, FPR, temp senders, thermostat, and all the usuall tune up stuff, but she just kept going downhill. Last night while cleaning and reoiling my air filter, I guess I was tugging on the battery cables to get them out of the way. After I was done I realized the clock in the radio reset itself. Hmmmm, I thought bad ground maybe, especially with the reports of others on the site, although mine never failed to turn over, like others have reported.
I guessed on the length of the wire and bought a ground wire from Autozone for $5 (49" long), and got lucky, it was the perfect length!! Before starting, I didn't realize the ground wire goes from the battery, to the frame via a small clamp then to the block. And the clamp to the frame I think is were the problem lies. Bare wire is exposed to the elements where it goes through the clamp. I didn't like the idea so I made about a 2 1/2' section of wire, luckily I had some. I ran both wires into the block, ran the short piece to the frame, and the long one back to the battery, that way no bare wire is exposed. The whole process took 2 hours and that included time to make the short piece. I cut the covering off the old wire and I'd say 75% of it was green and corroded.
I took it for a drive and was sooooooo happy!! Surging is gone, she'll rev to redline without backfiring, and my power is back bigtime. I'll update to see if my mileage increases, but from the judge of things so far, it will.
Sorry so long, but if you have problems that seem to persist, you might try it, cost 10 bucks and 2 hours.
CJ
I guessed on the length of the wire and bought a ground wire from Autozone for $5 (49" long), and got lucky, it was the perfect length!! Before starting, I didn't realize the ground wire goes from the battery, to the frame via a small clamp then to the block. And the clamp to the frame I think is were the problem lies. Bare wire is exposed to the elements where it goes through the clamp. I didn't like the idea so I made about a 2 1/2' section of wire, luckily I had some. I ran both wires into the block, ran the short piece to the frame, and the long one back to the battery, that way no bare wire is exposed. The whole process took 2 hours and that included time to make the short piece. I cut the covering off the old wire and I'd say 75% of it was green and corroded.
I took it for a drive and was sooooooo happy!! Surging is gone, she'll rev to redline without backfiring, and my power is back bigtime. I'll update to see if my mileage increases, but from the judge of things so far, it will.
Sorry so long, but if you have problems that seem to persist, you might try it, cost 10 bucks and 2 hours.
CJ
